Rightly Related
Rightly Related by Rev. L. John Gable
March 24, 2019
During these past several weeks we have been talking about Jesus’ “I AM” statements, and I think it would be safe to say that we want what Jesus offers.
He says He is the “Bread of life” and we want the kind of spiritual nourishment only He can give; that He is “the Gate” and we desire the kind of access and egress in to the presence of God and among God’s people and then out again in to the abundant life He offers. He calls Himself the “Good Shepherd” and we pray for His care and protection; even as we do for His illumination as the “Light of the World” and His guidance as “the Way, the Truth and the Life”. And ultimately, we put our eternal hope and trust in His promise that He is “the Resurrection and the Life.”
We want what Jesus has to offer, but the question is, how do we access it? How do we attain it? It is one thing to know that these things are out there and available and yet another to have claimed these promises for ourselves. I believe Jesus answers that question for us in our lesson this morning, in His seventh and the last of His “I AM” statements, when He says, “I am the true vine.”
I believe this is the simplest or the easiest of Jesus’ statements about Himself for us to understand, as well as the most practical and applicable. Any child can understand that a flower plucked from the ground or a branch cut from a tree is going to wither and die. It is a simple principle to understand that one must remain attached to its life-source if it is going to continue to live and grow and thrive, so what is true biologically Jesus says is also true spiritually. Now, I don’t want to be found guilty of being the one who tries to explain the joke or over explain Jesus’ teaching, thus making complex what He intended to be easy to understand, so let me offer this sermon in a sentence: our spiritual life and vitality is dependent on our being rightly related to God the Father through Jesus the Son, and without it, without that kind of relationship, we cannot bear the fruit of it. And let me be clear in saying, that this is not so much a threat as it is an invitation.
Let’s look at the way Jesus explains and applies this truth. He says, “I am the true vine and My Father is the vinegrower.” Even those of us without a green thumb know some basic principles of horticulture. The vine does not grow on its own; it is planted and rooted in the soil. Jesus, as the “true vine”, is stating that He is not some fresh-start, Johnny-come-lately prophet announcing a new way to God; rather that He is planted and grounded in the good soil of the history of the Jewish nation, the teachings of the Law and the Prophets. Yet, now He is fulfilling and replacing that ancient tradition by establishing a “new covenant”, so if we want to be inheritors of the promises of God we must be “rightly related” to Him. He identifies that vital connectedness by saying “He is the Vine and we are the branches.”
Listen in this lesson to the word that Jesus uses to describe this “right relationship”, and how frequently He uses it: “abide”. “I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who abide in Me and I in them bear much fruit, but apart from Me you can do nothing…If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you…As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; abide in My love.” I can think of no more beautiful promise or invitation Jesus gives us anywhere in Scripture. He is inviting us to enter in to the kind of relationship with Him that He has with His Heavenly Father. He invites us to “abide” in His love. What does He mean by that?
To “abide” means to “make your home with”, to “continue with” or “remain with”. In short, Jesus is saying “stick with Me”, which implies something different than a command or a directive; this is an invitation for us to enter in to an intimate friendship, a committed and loving relationship, with Jesus. We all know the difference between being a guest or a visitor someplace and really being “at home”. Jesus is inviting us to make our home with Him, in Him, to be “rightly related” to Him, as a branch is to the vine. This is His desire for each of us, and He desires that this be our desire as well.
This morning at the 9:00am service we baptized Finlay Rogue Sears, the son of Erin and Brodie Sears. One of the phrases used in the baptism liturgy references our being “engrafted into the Body of Christ.” Engrafted? This is the horticultural process of cutting a notch in the tree and binding a new branch in to it, so that the new branch can begin drawing its life-source from the tree and its roots. This is what we do in baptism. We are “engrafted” in to Christ who is the source of the only true life we will ever know. So let me repeat our sermon in a sentence: our spiritual life and vitality is dependent on our being rightly related – our “abiding in”, our being “engrafted” into God the Father through Jesus the Son, and without it we cannot bear the fruit of it.
As Jesus is describing the importance of this relationship He says, “He (meaning the Vinegrower, God the Father) removes every branch that does not bear fruit…whoever does not abide in Me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown in to the fire, and burned.” Is this a judgment teaching of our Lord? It most certainly is, but we can also hear it as a plea, as a reality check, as a stressor of the importance of our “abiding”, of our being “rightly related” to God through Christ because without that connectedness we cannot bear the fruit or reap the benefits that He desires for us, and we for ourselves.
We all know when we are in “right relationship” with others and when we are not, including our relationship with God, so we can apply this teaching to our everyday lives. Last week when we looked at Jesus’ “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” teaching, I made the comment that many confess to feeling cut off or distant from God; living lives of distraction or emptiness, meaninglessness or despair.” My use of the word “distraction” caught the attention of one of you who must have been listening very closely, Jeanne Rieger, because she wrote me this email later that afternoon (which I share with her permission).
She writes, “Yesterday I had been getting ready to lecture on Orthopedic Surgery and there is a part where I teach about “traction and distraction”… distraction is referring to bones that are displaced and broken apart. Traction is about pulling them together and putting them in all the same direction. You used the word “distraction” in your sermon and I started thinking how sometimes I am “distracted” and how being a follower of Jesus gives my life “traction” to go in one direction, towards Him.” That also could be our sermon in a sentence today.
Jesus’ desire is that we gain “traction” or align ourselves with Him, so when He talks about branches that need to be cut off because they are not bearing any fruit He isn’t telling us anything we don’t already know about ourselves. There are parts of our lives that simply need to be cut off and thrown in to the fire because they are a “distraction” to our relationship with God or our right relationships with others.
Now very curiously, Jesus makes two different references to this experience of cutting and both make sense horticulturally. He speaks of what we would call “lopping”, the cutting out of dead wood, and of “pruning”, or what He refers to as being a “cleansing cut”, which is intended to increase the beauty or productivity of the plant so that it will bear more fruit. While it would be true to say that both kinds of cutting are for the benefit of the plant, it would also be safe to say, at least from the perspective of the branch, that both acts of cutting are painful. The problem is, when we experience the pains and sorrows of life we don’t know whether we are being lopped or pruned, do we? All we know is that it hurts.
This past week I read a powerful little book by Philip Yancey titled, The Question That Never Goes Away – Why? Yancey is the author of the bestseller, Where is God When It Hurts? In this follow-up volume he cites experiences of those who have suffered around globe from Columbine to Sarajevo, Sandy Hook in Newtown to the Fukushima power plant in Japan. Understandably, those kinds of experiences prompt us to ask the question, “Why?”, but interestingly enough, Yancey writes of hearing two repeated refrains from those who have survived these kinds of tragedies. First, many people say that their suffering became the catalyst for their spiritual growth. While none of them could ever say they were “thankful for the tragedy”, many say that they are thankful for the growth that came from it and through it. Rather than their moving away from God, their experiences caused them to grow closer and deeper in their relationship with God, as well as with others who came around them to help. And second, they repeatedly said they did not know how they could ever have endured their suffering without a sense of the presence of God. Jesus’ promise, “I am with you always” took on incredibly new meaning for them.
For these individuals, the “cutting” they experienced was not “lopping” but “pruning”, and how did they know? Because they experienced new growth and the bearing a new fruit because of it. The growth came from their “ abiding”, from their “being at home” with Jesus; the fruit from their being “rightly related” to Him.
So, how do we get that? How do we enter into that kind of relationship ? Simply by desiring it; by responding to His invitation to “abide” with Him; by asking for and then accepting what He has already offered. Jesus invites us to come and make our home with Him, to do life with Him, to follow Him, to stick with Him come what may. Many hear this teaching as being a directive, a command, some even a threat, “do it or else”; but I prefer to hear it as an invitation, an invitation to enter in to the kind of life-giving, fruit-bearing relationship that only Jesus can offer because He alone is the “true vine.”
I know many of us have already responded to that invitation; if not, today would be a great time to do so, but how do we know we are “abiding” in Christ, engrafted and rightly related to Him? Again we can use the horticultural test. How do you know if a plant is alive? You look to see if it is growing and bearing fruit and the same test can be applied to our life in Christ. Ask yourself: Is there evidence in my life that I am growing into the likeness of Christ, bearing fruit, reproducing His life in the life of others? Am I the same person I was before I met Christ and decided to follow Him? Can I see any evidence of growth or change in my life or can others see it in me? Am I caring increasingly more and more about those He came to save? Do I have the desire to walk more and more closely with Jesus, to “love Him more dearly, see Him more clearly and follow Him more nearly, day by day”?
Another way to ask this would be, am I experiencing the joy that Jesus promises? At the conclusion of our lesson this morning, Jesus says, “I have said these things to you so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” Anyone who thinks that the Christian life is intended to be onerous or burdensome or joy-less hasn’t yet experienced it. Jesus desires that His joy may be in us, and His joy is over-flowing! What could be better than that? And Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, picks up on this teaching when He says, “the fruit of the Spirit, besides joy, is love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Ask yourself: Am I bearing this kind of fruit because of my relationship with Christ? If so great, I am alive; if not, why not, what needs to be lopped or pruned from my life?
Friends, Jesus offers us a very gracious invitation when He says, “Come, abide with Me”, both now and eternally, and we must respond because our spiritual life and vitality is dependent on our being “rightly related” to God the Father through Jesus the Son; without it we cannot bear the fruit of it, and what a regrettable, missed opportunity that would be.